Dr. Kellogg's lectures on practical health topics

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1

CHEM.UB.

Dr. Kellogg' s Lectures

on
Practical Health Topics

^^rnrX^xi^f^

Dn Kellogg's Lectures

on
Practical Health Topics

Volume I.

Battle Creek, Michigan
GOOD HEALTH PUBLISHING CO.

1913

CopTrigtt, 1913, by
Good Health Publishing Co.

Contents

Changing the Intestinal Flora 13

Dangers of School Life 39

The Simple Life in a Nutshell 61

Tobacco — ^Arch Enemy of Efficiency 81

Combating Neurasthenia 95

Life and the Liver 107

on

Changing the Intestinal Flora

Changing the Intestinal Flora

Pasteur discovered that the intestinal
tract is swarming with bacteria. Strass-
burger and other more recent investigators
have estimated the number of these organ-
isms produced in the intestinal tract daily to
be not less than 150,000,000,000,000, and
doubtless the number is sometimes much
greater. Pasteur believed and taught that
these countless millions of minute organisms
were useful and even necessary to the main-
tenance of the body in health, that they ren-
dered valuable and essential assistance in the
process of digestion. More recent studies,
however, have shown that Pasteur was in
error.

Levin, in the study of Arctic animals at
Spitzbergen, showed that more than 53 per
cent of the animals in that region have no
bacteria in the intestinal tract. Nuttall and
Thierfelder showed that guinea pigs brought
into the world by Caesarian section may be
made to grow without contact with bacteria.

IS

14 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

Cohendy has quite recently shown that
chickens hatched from eggs free from bac-
teria may be raised and made to thrive on
food and drink in an atmosphere entirely free
from germs. It is now clearly established
that we do not live by the aid of the germs
that throng our intestines and swarm upon
the surface of the body, but rather that we
live in spite of these microbic enemies.

Two Classes of Germs:

The germs that are ordinarily found in the
human intestine may be divided into two
classes; namely, fermentation germs and
putrefaction germs. Fermentation germs
feed upon carbohydrates; that is, starch,
sugar and dextrin; while putrefaction germs
feed upon protein — such substances as the
white of eggs, the lean of meat, and the curd
of milk. Roughly speaking, we may say that
fermentation germs feed upon vegetable and
putrefaction germs upon animal substances.

These two classes of germs differ very
widely in their characteristics and their re-
lation to the human body is in each case based
upon the substances which they produce by

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 15

their activity. Fermentation germs produce
for the most part acids, especially lactic and
acetic acids, which, in the small quantities
in which they are produced in the body, are
practically harmless. Putrefaction germs, on
the other hand, produce by the decomposition
of proteins, especially when acting upon
animal proteins, highly poisonous toxins,
many of which closely resemble the venom of
snakes and which are capable of producing
in the most minute quantities the most alarm-
ing and distressing symptoms.

Poisoning From Putretcible Colon Omtenis

A good illustration of the ill effects of
minute doses of these poisons is found in the
unpleasant symptoms experienced by contact
with putrescible substances; for example,
the odors arising from a dead rat in a closet
or under the floor, although greatly diluted
with air, may give rise to headache, loss of
appetite, nausea, and other unpleasant effects.
The sickening effects of the odors arising
from the fecal discharges of a dog or cat, or
of a person accustomed to the free use of
meat, clearly demonstrate the potency of

16 DR. K£LLCXX;*S LECTURES

these subtle poisoiis. The bowel discharges
of a meat-eater, exposed in a closed room,
would in an hour or two render the place in-
tolerable, even to a very robust person. The
writer has known vigorous young men to be
made very ill with violent attacks of headache
through a few hours' contact with such ma-
terial in laboratory work. A moment's con-
sideration will show that such corrupt and
putrescent matters must be capable of pro-
ducing much greater mischief when in the
body than after removal from it. If the
mere breathing of the greatly diluted volatile
poisons arising from such putrescent matter
will produce highly unpleasant effects, how
much more grave must be the effects when
through the retention within the body of
these foul substances all of their poisonous
contents are absorbed and sucked up into the
blood and circulated throughout the body!
In other words, when a person through con-
stipation throws off through the limgs, kid-
neys and skin a large part of the poisonous
matters which ought to have been discharged
through the bowel, how great must be the
mischief done! There is abundant reason

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 17

for believing that the poisoning of the body,
or so-called autointoxication, which results
from the absorption of poisons from the in-
testine, is the chief cause of most chronic dis-
eases and of premature senility and decay, as
well as a very potent and predisposing cause
of most acute maladies.

Boieficent or Protective Germs

Normal human beings are born into the
world entirely free from bacteria. Not a
single germ is found in the interior of the
new-born infant. Within a few hours after
birth (four to six hours in summer, and
twenty hours in winter) the intestines of the
infant are found to be swarming with bac-
teria, the study of which, by Tissier, Esche-
rich and numerous other investigators has
shown to be of the harmless sort —
namely, the fermentation germs or acid-
formers. It is the presence of these germs
that gives to the stools of a healthy young
infant a slightly acid odor. A portion of the
bowel discharges of the young infant added
to milk does not cause putrefaction of the
milk, but simply souring or fermentation.

18 DR. KELLOGGS LECTURES

These acid-forming germs play a protective
role. Thanks to their presence in the intes-
tine, the putrefaction germs cannot thrive,
for these organisms cannot grow in the pres-
ence of acids. An alkaline medium is needed
to promote their growth. Hence, so long
as acid-forming germs keep possession of its
intestine the infant is safe from the destruc-
tive effects of the putrefaction germs, or
poison-formers, which are the cause of
diarrhea and most other infant troubles.
When by the use of cow's milk (that is,
ordinary commercial milk), or by other
errors in feeding, such as the giving of meat
or eggs, overwhelming numbers of putrefac-
tion germs are introduced into the intestine
and the infant's stools become dark-colored
and bad-smelling, then the experienced
mother or nurse, as well as the doctor, knows
that the child, if not already sick, will soon
be sick, and the sickness will be due to the
poisons produced by these enemies of life,
the germs of putrefaction.

As the child advances in years the putre-
faction germs increase in number in the in-
testine. Through the use of meat, highly

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 19

active putrefaction germs are introduced into
the intestine and grow and multiply in great
numbers, so that the stools become very of-
fensive and chronic autointoxication results.
The consequences are constipation, colitis,
so-called biliousness, gastritis, inflammation
of the gall ducts, gall stones, skin diseases of
various sorts, neurasthenia, and after some
years Bright's disease, hardening of the
arteries, high blood-pressure, apoplexy,
paralysis, insomnia, mental depression, and
even insanity.

The Cause of Old Age

Metchnikoff has clearly proved that these
putrefaction germs are the cause of early
senility, premature old age and death.
Among the worst of the putrefaction germs
which are commonly found in the intestine in
the diseased condition of adult life are the
bacillus colt, Welch's bacillus, bacillus pro-
tens, bacillus subtilis, streptococcus, enterO'
coccus, bacillus putrificus, bacillus paracoli,
and sometimes the typhoid bacillus. All
these germs produce most virulent poisons,
and when present in the feces in large num-

20 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

bers they are certain proof of the existence of
chronic intestinal autointoxication, even
though the characteristic symptoms of auto-
intoxication have not yet appeared. A coated
tongue, a sallow complexion, large circles
around the eyes, appearance of brown spots
upon the hands or other parts (the so-called
liver spots), offensive breath and perspira-
tion, the discharge of foul-smelling gases
from the bowels, putrid stools, thin, inelastic,
parchment-like skin, dullness of mind, in-
ability to concentrate the mind, mental irri-
tability or depression without apparent cause,
cold hands and feet, perspiration of the
hands and feet, chronic headache, attacks of
migraine or sick headache — ^these and a score
of other symptoms which might be mentioned
are certain indications of chronic poisoning,
prompt attention to which may prevent the
development of the later more serious con-
ditions, such as hardening of the arteries,
Bright's disease with albumen and casts in
the urine, or apoplexy with paralysis. Grave
symptoms of autointoxication do not appear
until after the mechanism of the body,
through which nature deals with poisons, de-

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 21

stroying and eliminating them, has broken
down and failed to accomplish its purpose as
a result of the overwhelming amount of work
which has been thrown upon it. Hence, the
appearance of symptoms of autointoxication
indicate that the body has already become
crippled and that the matter must receive
serious and immediate attention.

Reforming the Intestinal Flora

Eminent progressive medical men the
world over are rapidly coming to recognize
that changing the intestinal flora is an im-
portant factor in the treatment of all forms
of chronic disease, and that in the great ma-
jority of chronic diseases it is the one es-
sential thing. Modern researches have clearly
shown that the great benefit that has been
known to be derived from those methods of
treatments which have been most successful
have really been due to the influence of these
measures upon the intestinal flora.

We may mention, for example, the tem-
porary benefit derived by the tens of thou-
sands of persons who annually visit mineral
springs, the waters of which possess laxative

22 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

properties. Such resorts are popular in all
parts of the world, and the benefit derived
from the use of such waters is sufficient to
attract countless multitudes of visitors year
after year; but that these patients are never
cured, no matter how much temporary benefit
they may derive from the thorough emptying
of their intestines and the unloading of ac-
cumulated poisons, is shown by the fact that
they always return, often being compelled to
return at increasingly frequent intervals.

Retulti of a Reformed Flora

Again, we find in the remarkable effects
which have been obtained by various special
dietaries an equally good illustration of the
curative value of means which influence the
intestinal flora. The grape cure, the apple,
peach, cherry and other fruit cures, the milk,
buttermilk and whey cures — ^all of these
cures operate through their influence upon the
intestinal flora. The same statement may
also apply to the raw food cure, which has
acquired considerable vogue in the last few
years.

Fruits and milk are substances which fer-

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 23

ment but do not putrefy. Hence, when the
diet is exclusively confined to these articles,
fermentative changes rather than putrefac-
tion take place in the intestine, acids are
formed instead of poisons, and for the time
being the body is delivered from the de-
structive influence of the highly potent toxins
produced by putrefactive germs when active
either within the body or outside of it. Raw
foods of a vegetable character are alive and
hence able to resist the action of bacteria.
Vegetable foods taken in a raw or uncooked
state are digested before it is possible for
them to undergo destructive changes, and
thus their use discourages the growth of
bacteria in the intestine, especially those of
the putrefactive sort.

Dangerous Germs Made Harmless

Bienstock showed that the colon germ,
which, in the presence of protein (meat, eggs,
etc), produces indol and other highly active
poisons capable of causing hardening of the
arteries, headache, probably Bright's disease,
and numerous other disorders, is, in the pres-
ence of sugar, incapable of producing these

24 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

poisonous substances, producing instead
harmless acids.

Sir Lauder Bninton, of England, and more
recently Kennan, in this country, have shown
that this is true of practically all putrefactive
germs ; that is, the germs which cause putre-
faction when growing on protein will, if sup-
plied with a sufficient amount of sugar, cease
to produce putrefaction and poisons and pro-
duce fermentation with harmless acids in-
stead. In other words, putrefaction germs
may be reformed by simply feeding them
with sugar. This explains the fact that eggs,
which of all substances most readily undergo
putrefaction, may be perfectly preserved by
the addition of sugar. It also explains the
fact that the pioneer housewife and the
nomadic Arab maintain a supply of fresh
meat by immersing cutlets in cow's milk or
camel's milk. The writer has in his posses-
sion a beefsteak which has been kept in a
state of perfect preservation for more than
six years (since June, 1906) , by immersion in
buttermilk made from a culture of the
Bacillus Bulgaricus.

It appears, then, that putrefactive organ-

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 25

isms, which are now recognized as among the
most common and deadly enemies of human
life, may actually become harmless and even
useful by supplying them with sugar, pro-
vided this can be done at the proper time and
in the proper place.

How to Change the Intestinal Flora

After studying this question for more than
twenty years, or ever since the appearance of
Bouchard's great work, "Autointoxication in
Disease, or Self-Poisoning of the Individual,"
the writer has been fully persuaded that it is
possible to change the intestinal flora, and
that this change is one of the most practical
and important means of combating the great
majority of the chronic diseases with which
the physician has to deal. A method which
has been thoroughly tested is the following:

I. The adoption of a strict antitoxic diet.
This requires, for most rapid results, the ex-
clusion of all animal protein; that is, meat,
including fish, fowl and game, as well as beef,
mutton and pork, together with eggs and
milk and all preparations and dishes con-
taining these animal proteins must be strictly

26 DR. K£LLCXX;*S LECTURES

avoided. In extreme cases of autointoxica-
tion, the strict exclusion of all animal pro-
tein is absolutely necessary. In milder cases
milk, especially in the form qf buttermilk,
may be used. It is important, however, be-
fore permitting the use of milk to determine
by examination of the feces whether or not
the patient is able to digest casein. This
must be determined by the application of Tri-
boulet's test. When reaction is positive, milk
must be discarded. The test shows that
casein is not well digested and hence cannot
be absorbed in the small intestine, so that
when it finds its way into the colon it furnishes
food for some of the most active and virulent
forms of putrefactive organisms. Cow's
milk has been clearly shown to be very poorly
adapted to the human digestive apparatus. It
acts as a virulent poison in many cases, be-
cause, as Tissier has shown, it promotes the
growth of organisms which produce highly
active toxins.

Antitoxic Foods

The diet should consist of fruits, cereals,
and fresh vegetables, and should include a

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 27

considerable amount of uncooked vegetables,
such as lettuce, cucumbers and cabbage. The
experiments at the Pasteur Institute have
shown that potatoes and dates are partic-
ularly valuable as antitoxic foods, for the
reason that the carbohydrates which they con-
tain — starch in the potato, and sugar in the
date — are not fully absorbed in the small in-
testine and reach the colon in larger amount
than do the carbohydrates of most other
foods. Carrots were found by MetchnikoflF's
experiments also to be a highly valuable food.
Another specially valuable food, of which the
writer has made much use with excellent suc-
cess, is oatmeal prepared by quick cooking.
The steel-cut oats or old-fashioned Scotch
oats are better for the purpose than rolled
oats. Instead of cooking a long time so as
to insure the complete conversion of all the
starch, the oatmeal should be stirred in boil-
ing water and cooked for five minutes, then
set aside for five minutes more, and then
served. Oats prepared in this way constitute
the brose of the Scotch Highlanders, and is
very palatable. Nevertheless, a considerable
portion is imperfectly cooked and hence is not

28 DR. KELLOGGS LECTURES

readily acted upon by the saliva and intestinal
juices, and thus finds its way into the colon,
where it may feed the fermentation germs
and by its presence prevent the putrefaction
germs from making poisons by the decompo-
sition of protein. This protective action may
be increased by the addition of wheat bran to
the oatmeal in the proportion of one part to
three by volume measure. The bran will
hasten the passage of the oatmeal through
the intestinal canal and will thus increase the
amount of carbohydrate which reaches the
colon.

The free use of such saccharine fruits as
prunes, figs, and raisins is also a valuable
means of introducing carbohydrates in the
most available form, since the germs which
live in the colon thrive better on a diet of
sugar than any other form of carbohydrates.
Maltose should be used freely in place of
cane sugar as a means of encouraging the
growth of the friendly organisms in the in-
testine.

Increased Intestinal Activity

2. The second step in changing the intes-
tinal flora is to increase the activity of the

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 29

intestine. The bowels naturally move three
times a day, or at least after each meal. In
children, and in many persons who enjoy the
best health, the bowels move four times a
day — on rising, after breakfast, after dinner,
and sometime between supper and bedtime.

Three Movements a Day

The practice of moving the bowels once a
day, or even less frequently is peculiar to
civilized people and is a result of the seden-
tary life and other abnormal habits which
prevail in civilization. The writer has made
very thorough-going inquiry among medical
missionaries and others who are acquainted
with the habits of primitive peoples, and
finds that the universal practice among really
primitive tribes is to move the bowels three
or four times a day. By inquiry at the Lon-
don Zoological Gardens we learned that this
habit is likewise true of the large apes. The
keeper in charge of these animals assured us
that the gorilla, chimpanzee and the
orang-utan move their bowels regularly four
times a day. The smaller monkeys, which
were eating almost constantly — ^visitors being

30 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

allowed to feed them freely, which was not
permitted with the larger apes — amoved their
bowels ten or twelve times a day, doubtless
the result of the constant stimulation of
gastric activity, for food is the natural laxa-
tive, contact of food setting up peristaltic
activity in the entire alimentary canal.
Methods whereby the bowels may be made
to move three or four times a day have been
fully described elsewhere. In addition, it
may be said that this activity may be accom-
plished in most cases by the use of bulky
food, acid fruits, sweet fruits, and if neces-
sary by the use of agar-agar and paraffin oil
(colax and para-lax). The cool enema may
also be employed if necessary. In many
cases special exercises, massage of the colon
and other helps are needed, and in excep-
tional cases surgical measures are required
to break up adhesions, remove obstructions,
or to overcome other mechanical obstacles,
such as kinks, loops, bands, etc.

Prottethre Acid Forming Bacteria

3. Antitoxic or protective ferments.
These consist of fermentation or acid-form-

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 31

ing bacteria, which have been shown to be
harmless and capable of growing in the in-
testine and producing conditions unfavorable
for the development of putrefaction germs.
The best known of these beneficent germs is
the Bacillus Bulgaricus, discovered by Grig-
oroff, studied by Tissier of the Pasteur In-
stitute, and popularized by Metchnikoff. An-
other important protective germ is the BaciU
lus bifidus, discovered by Tissier and suc-
cessfully used by him in the treatment of
thousands of cases. Another important
organism, the Bacillus glycobacter, recently
discovered by WoUman (Distaso of the
Royal Institute of Public Health, London,
claims to have discovered the same germ a
year earlier than WoUman), is highly ex-
tolled by Metchnikoff as a helper for the
Bacillus Bulgaricus and other acid-forming
germs by the fact that it is capable of form-
ing sugar from starch in the colon. This
germ greatly increases the efficiency of the
Bacillus Bulgaricus and Bacillus bifidus, be-
cause it insures them a supply of the food
which they require for vigorous development

32 DR. KELLOGGS LECTURES

in the colon. The fact that sugar is almost
completely absorbed from the small intestine
before the digestive contents reach the colon
gives the Bacillus Bulgaricus 2l very poor
chance to grow and develop in the colon. By
aid of the Bacillus glycobacter, however, this
difficulty is overcome. By a combination of
the Bacillus Bulgaricus, the Bacillus bifidus
and the Bacillus glycobacter in a special cul-
ture we have found it possible to secure
greater and far more rapid results than here-
tofore in changing the intestinal flora. By
the administration of a sufficient quantity of
this culture before each meal, or three times
a day, the intestinal flora may be rapidly
changed. The Bacillus Bulgaricus appears
in the stool within a few days after the ad-
ministration of the culture is begun. It is
important, of course, that the diet should be
thoroughly antitoxic, as above described, and
also that the bowels should be made to move
three or four times a day, as already indi-
cated. It is by the combination of many
factors only that the results desired can be
obtained.

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 33

Special Colon Injections

4. Of great value in special cases, partic-
ularly in cases of spastic constipation due to
colitis, is a measure by means of which change
of the flora may be greatly expedited by in-
troducing the special culture described in the
preceding paragraph, along with milk sugar
or malt sugar, into the colon. To accomplish
this efficiently the patient is placed in the
knee-chest position and by means of a proper
instrument, the proctoscope, the culture is
passed as high as possible into the pelvic
colon. By requiring the patient to retain the
knee-chest position for a few minutes, taking
deep breaths in the meantime, the culture is
carried high up into the colon and by the anti-
peristaltic movements of the tranverse colon
may be even made to reach the cecum. The
quantity of the culture employed may when
necessary be increased to a sufficient volume
to fill the colon. The culture is usually ad-
ministered at night and is if possible retained
over night so as to give opportunity for the
growth and development of the acid-forming
organisms in the colon.

34 DR. KELLCK;G*S LECTURES

H<yw Headaehet May be Made to Disappear

Experience in a large number of cases
demonstrates that by the employment of the
above described method the intestinal flora
may be rapidly changed, and with the change
of flora it is gratifying to note the rapid dis-
appearance of a multitude of distressing
symptoms which have previously in many
cases made the patient's life almost unendur-
able. Headaches disappear, usually at once,
sometimes more gradually, and coming on at
longer intervals, and becoming less and less
severe, until they disappear entirely. Bilious
and asthmatic attacks, backaches, and ab-
dominal pains due to colitis, skin eruptions,
fetor of the breath, offensive perspiration,
and a host of other symptoms rapidly vanish.
The tongue clears, the pigmentation of the
skin gradually fades, the hands and feet are
no longer cold and pale, mental depression,
irritability and insomnia disappear with other
morbid conditions, and the patient recognizes
that a regeneration process is rapidly going
forward. Nothing could be more delightful
or gratifying than the transformation which
takes place in one who has long suffered from

CHANGING THE INTESTINAL FLORA 35

intestinal toxemia when the pernicious flora
have been replaced and reformed and normal
conditions established.

The Colon Not a Sewer

Nature never intended that the interior of
the human intestine should be degraded to
the condition of a privy vault or an ob-
structed sewer, flooding the blood with brain-
and nerve-paralyzing and disease-breeding
poisons. This is clearly evident, not only by
the observations of Levin at Spitzbergen,
above referred to, but also by the discovery
in South America of a parrot which lives
wholly upon bananas, and the fecal dis-
charges of which have the fragrance of
bananas and are inoffensive as bananas them-
selves. What natural reason can be shown
that food that enters the body clean, sweet
and sterile should leave the body in a state
horribly loathsome with corruption?

Dangers in School Life

Dangers in School Life

That the human race is degenerating, at
least that there is a decided trend toward
race deterioration going on among all civi-
lized races, is no longer disputed. The facts
which have been brought forward by recent
reports of the American and other census
bureaus, and by the researches of life insur-
ance companies, leave no room for doubt that
the civilized portion of the human race is
showing many most decided evidences of
race decay.

Decay of the Teeth Sjrmptom of Race Decay

Biologists recognize as a general law that
premature decay of the hard structures of
the body is one of the most indubitable evi-
dences of racial decay. Among the people
of the United States at the present time, it is
very rare to find a person thirty years of age
or over who possesses in a sound condition
all of the thirty-two teeth which belong to
him. Dentists are among the most pros-

40 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

perous of professional men. Somebody has
suggested that the cemeteries of the present
may become the gold mines of the distant
future. It probably would be impossible to
find in the public schools a group of lOO chil-
dren, or even a much smaller number, all of
whom were free from dental decay. Doctor
Cornell, of Philadelphia, declares that from
one-third to one-half of all school children
are in need of dental treatment. In the
city of Baltimore, 1170 out of 9295 public
school children examined in 1907 showed
decayed teeth. The London report for 1907
reveals a most deplorable condition of the
teeth as the result of the examination by
Doctor Kerr of 700 young pupils in the
public schools. One pupil had seventeen de-
caying stumps in his mouth. Another boy
had not a single sound tooth. What valua-
tion would a horse dealer place upon a lot of
one hundred colts one-third or one-half of
which presented decayed teeth ?

Constitutioiial Feebleness

Decay of the teeth is not merely an acci-
dent; it is not alone the result of neglect of

DANGERS IN SCHOOL LIFE 41

daily cleansing: it is an evidence of consti-
tutional feebleness. The child whose teeth
are not able to resist the attacks of the bac-
teria to which they are necessarily exposed in
the mouth has bones which will readily yield
to the attack of the tubercle bacillus, and soft
tissues which are unusually susceptible to the
various parasitic enemies to which the human
organism is exposed. Such a child is a weak-
ling and will die prematurely.

Increase in Eye Ditorders

The great increase in eye disorders which
has been noted in recent times, must be at-
tributed to hereditary defects as well as to
the evil conditions imposed by school life.
In this we have likewise an evidence of
organic decay.

Eye Disorders More Prevalent

Another marked evidence of race decay,
affecting especially the central nervous system,
is to be noted in the great increase of in-
sanity. Within fifty years the proportion of
insane to the whole population has increased
300 per cent. Numerous neurologists have

42 DR. KELLCX;G*S LECTURES

called attention to the rapid increase of in-
sanity in this as well as in other civilized coun-
tries, and especially to the increase of that
form of brain degeneration known as paresis,
one of the most hopeless of all forms of
brain disease. At the present rate of in-
crease, only a few centuries will be required
to inoculate the whole population with the
virus of mental unsoundness.

Growth of Chronic Disease

The increase of chronic diseases of various
sorts, as shown by the last United States
census, is such as to be truly alarming. The
census of 1900 showed that while the mor-
tality from certain acute maladies such as
typhoid fever and other infectious disorders
was somewhat decreased, the increase of
mortality from leading chronic disorders was
such as to render the death rate from these
diseases within fifty years five to seventeen
times the present death rate. This increase
of chronic disease is a certain indication of
race degeneration, since it indicates dimin-
ished power of resistance to the death deal-
ing conditions with which man's environment

DANGERS IN SCHCX)L UFE 43

in civilized life bring him in daily contact.
Diminished longevity is another evidence
of race deterioration of which the positive
proof is now in evidence. The great increase
of average longevity in modern times, of
which sanitarians have boasted so much, has
been due entirely to the wonderful progress
which has been made in the control of acute
infectious maladies through the discovery of
bacteria and the development of bacteriology.
In Chicago, for example, improved sanitary
conditions in the course of a few years added
nearly nineteen years to the average length of
life of Chicago citizens. The results of
sanitary improvements in New York city
were even better. This great increase in life
duration due to the suppression of t)rphoid
fever and other acute disorders has served
to cover up the marked increase in mortality
from chronic disorders, which has been going
on simultaneously, and which manifests it-
self in the decrease in the proportion of
centenarians or very aged persons. This de-
crease in centenarians has been very manifest
in Germany and in England for a long time.
The demonstration that the same is true

44 DR. KELLCXX^'S LECTURES

in this country has recently been made by
life insurance companies, whose researches
show that in the last two decades there has
been a marked decrease in the expectancy of
life after sixty years.

With these facts before us, it is manifestly
the duty of those who are studying questions
of general interest to the physical welfare of
the race to seek earnestly to discover and so
far as possible to remove the causes which
underlie this terrible movement toward race
extinction which has become so decidedly
manifest in recent times. That some of these
may be found in the school room is evinced
by the considerable effort which has been
made in recent years to better the conditions
of school life.

A Broadened Conception of Teaching

In the first place, the average school
teacher needs to become possessed of a new
conception of the purpose of the school and
teaching. At the present time, it seems to be
the purpose of the primary school to prepare
the student for the grammar school, and of
the grammar school to enable the pupil to

DANGERS IN SCHOOL LIFE 45

enter the high school, and of the high school
to prepare the student for the university, and
of the university to prepare the student to
enter the aristocracy of the university alumni.
The standards by which the student is tested
at the various steps of his progress are purely
artificial modes of measuring his fitne$s for
advancement. They have little resemblance
to the natural tests to which he will be sub-
jected when he actually enters upon the
duties and responsibilities of life. Indeed,
they have little if any relation to what he is
going to do or what he is going to be unless
it may happen that his purpose is to devote
his life to teaching and thus enter upon the
work of passing on to others the artificial
training and culture which he has himself
received.

High School Methods Need Reforming

Thousands of practical men and women
fully recognize the fact that the boy or girl
who has spent four years in study in the high
school is very little better prepared to enter
upon the life dutfes of the average man or
woman than at the beginning of the course.

46 DR. KELLCXIGS LECTURES

In fact, large numbers are rendered actually
less fit after graduation for the work which
they are to do in the world than when they
entered the course. The general tendency
of the course is to weaken initiative, to im-
pair originality, to lessen both the aptitude
and the disposition to engage in manual pur-
suits which the majority of men and women
must follow for a livelihood.

Neglect in Hygiene and Phjrsiology

The weakest point of all is the neglect to
instruct pupils in those things which are of
most vital consequence to each one individu-
ally, to the nation, and to the race. The in-
struction in physiology and hygiene is of the
most elementary and inefficient character. It
is important for the child to acquire a good
command of his mother tongue. He must
learn how to express himself well in both
written and spoken language; but it is far
more important that the pupil should learn
how to make the most of his constructive
faculties through the use of his hands guided
by good judgment, practice, thought and

DANGERS IN SCHCX)L LIFE 47

sense, backed up by a patient, industrious dis-
position. It is especially important that he
should know how to preserve his health and
how to avoid disease. It is perfectly proper
to go further and say that every intelligent
person should know enough of the care of
the body and of disease to be able in an
emergency to apply' sensible and appropriate
measures, at least temporarily until profes-
sional services may be secured.

Culture u Not All

It would certainly seem reasonable to de-
mand that every person who lays claim to
liberal culture or who holds a university
degree in any department of learning should
possess as an essential element of knowledge,
without which no person could lay claim to
being learned, a fair knowledge of anatomy,
a thorough knowledge of physiology, and a
very thorough knowledge of public and in-
individual hygiene, and above all, of eugenics.
No woman should be allowed to graduate
from either high school or university without
having received careful instruction in the re-
sponsibilities of marriage and in the care of

48 DR. KELLCX;G*S LECTURES

children, subjects which are altogether
ignored in the training of the schools and for
which so inadequate provision is made that
the majority of women are compelled to enter
upon the duties of motherhood with almost
no practical instruction whatever respecting
the proper discharge of the duties which they
have assumed.

When the student leaves the high school
or the university, he must as a rule, enter at
once upon some occupation for obtaining a
livelihood, and how often this occupation is
one for which his long years of preparation
have done little or nothing to increase his
fitness ! Some years ago I met a young man,
a college graduate, who had spent many
years in obtaining a classical education and
who possessed a superior knowledge of
Greek and Latin. On inquiring as to his oc-
cupation I learned that he was a painter.
"Portrait painter?" I asked. "Oh, no," he
replied, "only a common house painter."
"How long a time were you in learning
house painting?" I inquired. "I served
an apprenticeship of three weeks," was
the reply. Sixteen years spent in school

DANGERS IN SCHOOL LIFE 49

training, then three weeks spent in prepa-
ration for actual workl And the most
vital thing of all had been neglected both
during school life and after. Having
learned nothing about the care of his body,
he was so broken down in health that he
could make no use either of his college train-
ing or of his course in post-graduate in-
dustrial training.

School Cripples

Our schools are turning out every year
multitudes of young men and women who
may be properly designated as school cripples.
The many years of school life develop a
sedentary habit which multitudes never re-
cover from. In many cases this amounts to
an actual dread of muscular effort, so that the
physical feebleness acquired during the years
of muscular inactivity in school are multiplied
and intensified. The period of life spent in
school is the only period at which any marked
influence can be exercised upon the develop-
raient of the physique. At this time, by
proper exercises, it is possible to increase the
size of the chest and the lungs, to add to the

50 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

Stature, to build up the muscular system, to
correct various bodily weaknesses and de-
ficiencies, and to acquire a capital of physical
energy which may be of immense advantage
during a whole life time as a foundation for
both physical and mental endurance and ef-
ficiency. Great progress has been made in
recent years in providing gymnasia and other
facilities for physical training, but many
years will elapse before every public school
will be provided with a well equipped gym-
nasium. It is not necessary to wait for this.
Every school room, every school yard, and
the great out-of-doors everywhere afford
ample opportunity for all that is essential in
the direction of physical training and muscu-
lar development. To simply turn the students
outdoors to play or to turn them loose in a
gymnasium is by no means sufficient. The
students of every school should be carefully
studied and classified as regards their strength
and physical ability. Their physical work
should be supervised with as much care as
their work in language or in any other branch.
The teachers ought to join with them in their
exercises, whether at work or gymnastic

DANGERS IN SCHCX)L LIFE 51

games, and will thereby be profited as much
as their pupils.

Physical Coltiire Needed

Provision should be made in connection
with every school for instruction and practice
in swimming, both summer and winter; and
properly equipped outdoor gymnasiums
should also be provided for both sexes in
which a considerable part of the body's sur-
face may be exposed to the air and the sun.
Man is naturally an outdoor animal and re-
quires the advantages to be derived from
contact of the fresh air and the sunshine with
the skin surface as much as does the gorilla,
the chimpanzee and other animals akin to
man in their physical structure. Facilities of
this sort may be provided at moderate cost,
and the expense should not be at all burden-
some, even in country districts, especially if
the present movement for the consolidation
of country schools proves successful.

Helps to Combat Degeneracy

The wearing of clothes is as unnatural to
human beings as dwelling in houses, and the

52 DR. KELLCXIG'S LECTURES

evils growing out of house-dwelling, and
smothering the skin with artificial coverings
must be antidoted by such means as are af-
forded by the swimming pool and the out-
door gymnasium. I know of no single meas-
ure by which so much good can be accom-
plished as by these. Swimming in water at
a proper temperature (75 to 78 degrees) is
the most beneficial of all developmental ex-
ercises. The position of the body is such as
to give the lungs the greatest freedom of
movement, and all the muscles of the trunk
and limbs are brought into active exercise
under most favorable conditions. The tem-
perature of the water both stimulates and
facilitates muscular movement and cardiac
activity. There is no other form of physical
exercise from which so much benefit may be
derived in so short a time. A half hour in
the swimming pool two or three times a week,
and an hour with the skin largely uncovered
in an outdoor gymnasium every other day
during the warm months, will work wonders
in building up a good physique and devel-
oping those functions of the body which pre-

DANGERS IN SCHOOL LIFE 53

pare it to oifer the highest resistance to dis-
ease.

Evik Resulting From Adenoids

A recent investigation made in Leipsic by
school physicians showed that among 9000
school children, nearly one-fourth were suffer-
ing from adenoids, a disease of the post-
nasal region which results from low vital re-
sistance and which when neglected results in
grave physical deformities of the face and
chest, impairment of hearing, and even men-
tal depreciation. It is safe to say that 75 per
cent of cases of this sort would disappear if
the outdoor gymnasium and the swimming
pool could be made to do their part in the
physical education of the child.

Another matter of exceeding importance
which, though frequently mentioned, has cer-
tainly not been emphasized as it should be,
is that of correct position in sitting, standing
and exercising. School seats are rarely
constructed properly. The back of the seats
should be of such shape that when sitting
erect in a seat the back of the trunk shall
be properly supported. This necessitates a

54 DR. KELLCXKiS LECTURES

Strong anterior curve near the lower part of
the back, while the upper part is sufficiently
inclined to carry the head considerably back
of a vertical line passing through the pelvis.
The seat should be well inclined backward so
as to prevent slipping down, and the height
of the seat should be such that the student's
feet can rest upon the floor. Such a seat
will place the student in such a position when
he sits erect that the chest will be held well
forward, the abdominal muscles will be made
tense, and thus the abdominal organs will
be held in their proper places.

Frequent Exercise Important

Students require short periods of exercise
at frequent intervals during the day. Two
or three minutes of active exercise after each
period will cause no loss in the amount of
work accomplished, even if subtracted from
the period of study or recitation, as it will
unquestionably materially increase mental
activity and efficiency.

Physical Equality With Mental Development

Essential

The many years spent in the school room

render the school life a dominant factor in

DANGERS IN SCHOOL LIFE 55

the whole life of the child, and it certainly
seems reasonable that during this period as
much attention should be given to the build-
ing up of a healthy body as to the develop-
ment of the mind. Every year a considerable
number of half developed boys, pale of face
and lank of limb, are gathered into the great
naval school at Annapolis. Here for one
whole year almost the entire time is devoted
to correcting the deficiencies and deformities
which have been acquired through previous
neglect. At the end of this period even their
intimate friends often find some difficulty in
recognizing in the splendid, rosy cheeked,
robust, big chested young fellows the weak-
lings who a year before entered the school.
Of course, every public school cannot be
a naval academy, but why should not the
public school, the college and the university
take the same interest in the physical develop-
ment of the boy or girl who spends the
formative period of life under its roof, take
as much interest in the making of the boy or
the girl a strong, vigorous, healthy, sturdy
young man or woman fit for the battles of

56 DR KELLOGG'S LECTURES

life, as does the naval academy in the train-
ing of men for warfare ?

New Values Must be Established

The educational concept needs to be en-
larged. A new standard of values needs to
be established Jn relation to the content of
the curriculum. If the high school graduate
knows a little less of Cxsar's wars or bridge
building exploits, but knows how to keep his
body in fit condition for maximum activity
and efficiency, how to eat, how to maintain
the normal rhjrthm of metabolism, the proper
rate of intake and outgo in his nutritive
functions, he will be vastly better off than
though he could repeat the -^neid by heart
but had failed to acquire the fine art of
chewing his food or the habit of eschewing
indigestibles and poisons.

The Trend Citsrward

One of the serious evils of school life as
at present conducted is the result of the pro-
longed withdrawal of the student from the
practical activities of life, especially from
muscular work. The sedentary habit is

DANGERS IN SCHCX)L LIFE 57

formed, the boy loses his aptitude for physi-
cal exertion, acquires an aversion for muscu-
lar pursuits, especially for work upon the
soil, the healthiest and most natural of all
occupations. A clerkship, a menial position
of almost any sort not involving hard work,
is after graduation sought for rather than
the really splendid opportunities offered by
the more rugged and strenuous life upon the
soil.

Return to the S<m1

The remedy proposed is to bring every
child into actual contact with the real and
natural life of the land, from which our
modem civilization has so far divorced us,
and by this means to antagonize to as great
an extent as possible both the mental and
the physical perversions which are the
natural results of city life and which are
doubtless the chief factors in modern race
deterioration.

Manual Labor a Part of the Curriculum

Connected with every school there should
be a piece of land on which every child, large
and small, boy and girl, should work.

56 DR. KELLOGGS LECTURES

Teachers should accompany the students in
their work, improving the opportunity af-
forded to give concrete instruction in the
fundamental facts pertaining to the great
natural world, knowledge of which can never
be gained from books.

The work should be graded progressively
and continued from the lowest classes of the
primary school to the senior classes of the
high school and even of the university.

The Tendency to Specialism

Our present system of education makes
specialists. As a result, we see whole com-
munities consisting exclusively of experts.
The all-round man is getting to be a rare ex-
ception. This may be temporarily advan-
tageous to our modern industrial machine, but
it is certainly a great disadvantage to the in-
dividual man, and it is evident that if we
cripple, stunt and deform the individual, we
shall in the end damage the whole.

The Simple Life in a Nutshell

The Simple Life in a Nutshell

The "simple life," or so-called "return-to-
nature," is not an innovation. It is a return
to the "old paths" from which the perver-
sions of our modern civilization have gradu-
ally diverted millions of men and women,
perversions that are responsible for the many
maladies and degeneracies which yearly
multiply in number and gravity.

Intestinal Origin of Disease

Modern medical research has demon-
strated that most diseases from which human
beings suffer, chronic as well as acute, are due
to infection of the alimentary canal by poison-
forming germs. Many scores of such germs
are known. The poisons are absorbed, and
give rise to a great variety of distressing
maladies and symptoms. Unnatural foods
and unwholesome habits of life encourage
infection of the intestine by introducing poi-
son-forming bacteria and promoting their
growth. Natural food and natural habits of
life combat these disease-producing infec-

61

62 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

tions. Hence the "simple life" is an anti-
toxic life.

General Rules

Give attention daily to cultivating health.
It will pay. Study the conditions and the sur-
roundings of the home and the business, and
give careful thought to personal habits and
practices with special reference to their bear-
ing on health.

Recognizing that health of mind and body
is one of the most valuable of all personal
assets, make every reasonable effort to main-
tain intact, and if possible, increase, the
capital of physical and mental strength.

Give to the body and its functions that care
and study which you would accord to any
other valuable and costly mechanism, so as to
become familiar with its needs and the best
means of supplying them.

Eatmg for Health and Efficiency

Eat only natural foods; that is, those
which are naturally adapted to the human
constitution. The natural dietary includes
fruits, nuts, cooked grains, legumes, and veg-

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 63

etables. Natural food imparts to the body
the greatest amount of energy, and maintains
normal conditions of life.

Avoid meats of all sorts (flesh, fowl, fish,
including **sea food"). These are unnatural
foods. They are all likely to contain deadly
parasites of various kinds, and always con-
tain noxious germs, meat bacteria or "anae-
robes," which infect the intestines, cause
putrefaction and other poison-forming pro-
cesses, and inoculate the body with disease.
These germs are not destroyed by ordinary
cooking, such as stewing, broiling, frying, and
roasting.

Avoiding Excessive Protein

Take care to avoid an excess of protein;
that is, the albuminous element which is rep-
resented by lean meat, the white of eggs, and
the curd of milk. An excess of protein pro-
motes putrefaction, and thus intestinal auto-
intoxication, the chief cause of "biliousness,"
colitis, appendicitis, gall-stones, arterio-
sclerosis, possibly cancer, Bright's disease,
and premature old age. Ordinary bread con-
tains a suflicient amount of protein, as do also

64 DR. KELLCXK;*S LECTURES

rice and other cereals and the potato. Most
nuts, also peas and beans, contain an excess
of protein, and should be eaten sparingly.

Eggs should be eaten in great moderation,
if at all. They encourage autointoxication,
and thus often cause "biliousness." The yolk
of the egg, it should be remembered, is more
wholesome than the white.

Cow's Milk Not Good Haman Food

Cow's milk is not altogether suited for
human food. A large proportion of invalids
— ^nearly half, perhaps — suffer from "casein
dyspepsia," and can not take milk without
suffering from constipation, headache, "bil-
iousness," coated tongue, or other unpleasant
symptoms that indicate intestinal autoin-
toxication. Such persons may sometimes
make use of fresh buttermilk, sour milk, cot-
tage cheese or kumyss, with less difficulty,
and even with benefit. Excellent substitutes
for milk may be prepared from nuts.

Animal fats, such as lard, suet, and or-
dinary butter, should be avoided. They are
difficult of digestion, and promote intestinal
autointoxication, and thus cause "bilious-

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 65

ness.'* Vegetable fats are more easily di-
gestible, and do not encourage intestinal auto-
intoxication. To be wholesome, butter must
be perfectly sweet, and should be made from
sterilized, or boiled, cream.

Dangers of Tea and Co£Fee

Avoid poison-containing foods. Tea, cof-
fee, chocolate and cocoa contain poisonous
alkaloids which impair digestion, damage the
nerves, and promote disease of the liver, kid-
neys, and blood-vessels. Cereal beverages
and hot fruit juices are wholesome substitutes
for tea and coffee.

Irritating Effects of Condiments

Condiments — mustard, pepper, pepper
sauce, cayenne, capsicum, vinegar, hot, irri-
tating sauces, and spices of all kinds — ^must
be wholly discarded. They irritate the
stomach, thus giving rise to gastric and in-
testinal catarrh, and damage the liver and
kidneys.

Common salt, or chlorid of sodium, should
be used sparingly, if at all. According to
Richet and others, the food naturally contains

66 DR. KELLOGCS LECTURES

all the chlorid of sodium actually required by
the body, so that the addition of salt to the
food is necessary only to please an artificial
taste. A safe rule is, The less the better.

How to Secure Proper Combinations

Food combinations should be such as to
give the proper proportion of the several
elements, — ^proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Fruits and vegetables, as well as other com-
binations of natural foodstuffs, agree per-
fectly when mastication is sufficiently thor-
ough to reduce the food to a liquid state in
the mouth and when indigestible residues are
rejected.

The quantity of food should be adapted to
the size of the person and the amount of
work which he does. Never eat to satiety.
A person of average height and moderately
active requires 200 calories of protein, 450
calories of fat, and 1,350 calories of carbo-
hydrates, or a total of 2,000 calories, or food
units, daily. The total number of calories
required is furnished by the following:
Bread, lOjE^ oz.; milk, 6 oz.; potatoes, 8
oz.; butter, 2j4 0^*9 com flakes, i^ oz.;

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 67

cream, 2^ oz.; apples, 7 oz. Be careful
to eat enough. The body can dispose of a
small excess, but is not able to make up a
deficiency.

Appetite Juice

Food must be well relished to be well di-
gested. According to Pawlow, "appetite
juice," which is produced by stimulation of
the nerves of taste by palatable food, is the
most important factor in gastric digestion.
Eat only when hungry, never because it is
meal-time, or because invited to eat.

Cane-Sugar Eaten in Small Qoantities

Cane-sugar should be eaten only in small
quantity. Large quantities give rise to
gastric catarrh and indigestion. Sweet fruits,
such as raisins and figs, and honey, are natural
and wholesome sweets.

A sedentary life tends to produce intestinal
inactivity; that is, slow digestion and consti-
pation; hence, the ordinary daily bill of fare
should supply an adequate amount of laxa-
tive foodstuffs, such as sweets (not cane-
sugar or syrups) and sweet fruits, especially
figs and prunes, acid fruits and fruit juices.

68 DR. KELLCXiG'S LECTURES

fats, fresh vegetables, and whole grain prepa-
rations.

Some fresh, raw food should be eaten
daily in the form of fresh fruits or fruit
juices, nuts, or salads. Raw cereals, roots
and tubers, are indigestible. The cellulose
of fruits and of young buds, leaves, and
shoots is digestible in the intestine.

Fresh vegetables and whole grain cereals
are needed to supply alkaline and earthy
salts. The blood and all living cells require
these salts, as do the teeth and the bones.
The free use of cane-sugar and meats leads
to lime starvation, because of the deficiency
in lime.

Eating at Regular Hours

Eat at regular hours, so as to maintain the
normal intestinal rhythm which secures tlie
daily movement of the bowels. Rather than
omit a meal entirely, eat some fruit, or drink
a glass of fruit juice, buttermilk, or some
other simple nutrient which will keep up the
peristaltic procession and rhythm. Never
take food into the stomach when remains of
a previous meal are present.

The best meal plan is to eat twice a day.

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 69

Eight to nine A. M. and three to four P. M.
are the best hours; or eleven A. M. and six
p. M., if the retiring hour is necessarily very
late.

If three meals are eaten, the heartiest meal
should be taken at midday. The breakfast
should be substantial, the evening meal very
light, especially avoiding pastries, fats, rich
sauces, and hearty foods. The evening meal
should consist chiefly of ripe or cooked fruits,
liquid foods, and such cereals as boiled rice
or cereal flakes.

Avoid iced foods and drinks. Very cold
foods or drinks, if taken at all, should be
swallowed slowly and in very small quantities.

Don't Worry

Dismiss work, worries, business cares and
annoyances while eating. Good cheer pro-
motes good digestion.

What we eat today will be walking about
and talking tomorrow; hence all foods not
known to be pure and wholesome should be
avoided. Especially avoid rich and so-called
hearty (hard to digest) foods, and such in-
digestibles as pickles, green olives, and pre-
serves.

70 DR. KELLOGCS LECTURES

Take three pints of water a day, including
liquid food.

Do not drink much at nor immediately
after meals. Take a few sips whenever
thirsty.

Drink a glassful of water on rising in the
morning, on retiring at night, an hour before
each meal, and two or three hours after
eating.

Live as much as possible in the open air.
If compelled to work indoors, be sure that
the living and work rooms have an ample,
continual supply of fresh air. The lower the
temperature the better, so long as the body
is kept comfortably warm. Temperatures
above 70° are depressing. The breathing of
cold air is a continuous tonic ; every breath is
a tonic bath, a vital lift. A thousand breaths
an hour count greatly toward health or dis-
ease, according as the air breathed is pure
and cool, or impure and hot.

Outdoor Exercise, Especially Gardeningy

Important

Working in the open air Is one of the best
forms of exercise, especially working in the

THE SIMPLE UFE IN A NUTSHELL 71

garden, digging, hoeing, pruning, etc. Do
some good, hard muscular work every day,
enough to produce slight muscular fatigue;
but avoid exhaustion. Exercise out of doors
an hour or two daily.

Swimming in water at 76° to 80° is the
best of all special health exercises. Rapid
walking and hill-climbing are excellent.

One need not degenerate physically be-
cause his occupation is sedentary. Always
sit erect, with chest held high and the small
of the back supported. Sit as little as pos-
sible. Standing and lying are more natural
and healthful positions than sitting. One
may exercise while sitting at work by stiffen-
ing the muscles of first one limb a few sec-
onds, then the other. All the muscles in the
body may be exercised in the same way.

Deep breathing aids digestion, encourages
liver and bowel action, develops the lungs,
and purifies the blood. The only directions
needed are to hold the chest high and breathe
as deep as you can ten or twenty times every
hour, or oftener. The best "breath" gym-
nastics are swimming, hill climbing, and rapid

72 DR. KELLOGG-S LECTURES

walking or running. Always breathe through
the nose.

How to Work

In walking, always hold the chest high and
carry it well to the front. Swing the arms
moderately, and walk fast enough to hasten
the breathing a little. Nine miles a day at
the rate of three miles an hour is the proper
distance for the average adult. Most house-
keepers and laborers do more.

Develop the abdominal muscles by some
simple exercises, such as walking on tiptoe
with chest held high, or running round the
room on all fours; or lie on the back, hold
the legs straight and raise them to the per-
pendicular, repeating thirty or forty times
three times a day.

Lying on the back, raise the body from the
lying to the sitting position with the hands
placed upon the back of the neck. Repeat
ten to twenty times three times a day, gradu-
ally increasing the number.

If the abdominal muscles are weakened, so
that the lower abdomen bulges forward, a
tight flannel bandage, or more substantial

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 73

support, should be worn about the lower ab-
domen when on the feet, until the muscles
have been strengthened by exercise.

Cleanse the mouth and teeth thoroughly
before and after each meal, on rising and on
retiring. A foul tongue and decaying teeth
indicate mouth infection and probable intes-
tinal autointoxication.

Vfhea to Bathe

Twice a week in winter, take a warm
cleansing bath before retiring. Apply olive
oil or fine vaseline after the bath if the skin
is dry. Bathe daily at night in warm weather.

Take a short cold bath every morning on
rising. This is an excellent tonic. Or take a
cool air bath morning and night, rubbing the
skin with a dry towel.

A very short hot spray or shower bath
(half a minute at iio°) may, if necessary,
be substituted for the cold bath.

The hands, nose, and scalp also require
sanitary attention. For the hands, use a
good soap and rinse well with soft water.

The bowels should move thoroughly at
least once a day, most naturaly soon after

74 DR KELLOGCS LECTURES

breakfast. Two daily movements are better,
soon after each of the principal meals. Pu-
trid, foul-smelling stools are an indication of
intestinal autointoxication, and are due to
an excess of protein in the form of meat,
eggs, or possibly milk. Such a condition al-
ways breeds disease.

Get Plenty of Sleep

Sleep eight hours each night. If not
strong, or if neurasthenic, take a nap before
dinner. Growth, assimilation, and repair are
most active during sleep.

Surroundings at night should be quiet.
Sleep amid noise is not normally refreshing.

On the right side, slightly turned toward
the face, is the best position during sleep.

The bed should be neither too hard nor
too soft. Avoid feathers. The covers should
be dry, warm, and porous. Avoid overheat-
ing by excess of clothing. Use a small pil-
low, or none at all.

Always breathe outdoor air when asleep,
supplied by means of wide open windows, a
window tent, an air tube, or a sleeping bal-

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 75

cony. Do not sleep within two hours after
eating.

Make the weekly Sabbath a day of com-
plete rest from work. Take a half-day o£f
in the middle of the week, if possible.

The clothing should be loose, comfortable,
light and porous. Restrictive clothing is
necessarily damaging, for the trunk of the
body is continually changing in form and size.
Wear porous, cotton or linen underclothing
next the skin.

Avoid waterproofs except for temporary
protection. Clothe the extremities so as to
keep them warm and dry. Avoid too much
clothing.

AIcohoKc Lk|uon and Tobacco

Discard tobacco, alcoholic beverages, and
other nerve foolers. They are poisons which
lessen efficiency and shorten life.

Avoid nostrums and patent medicines. The
habitual use of any drug is harmful.

For inactive bowels, knead the abdomen
well with the hands night and morning. Eat
laxative foods, especially fruits and nuts, and
whole-grain "cereals." Avoid oatmeal mush.

76 DR KELLOGG*S LECTURES

Drink a glass of cold water or eat an orange
on rising and retiring. Exercise the abdo-
minal muscles.

If sleepless or nervous, take a warm bath
at 102^ F. for one or two minutes, then cool
to 93^ to 95^ ; continue half an hour to two
hours if necessary.

What to Do for ''Bilioasnest"

For "biliousness," clear the stomach and
bowels, fast or eat fruit exclusively for a day
or two, and adopt a strict antitoxic diet,
avoiding meat, eggs, animal fats, and per-
haps milk.

Almost all cases of acute illness, except-
ing contagious disorders, are due to some
form of autointoxication. The best remedy
is fasting, or a meager diet of fruits and
cereals, for a day or two.

The best foods in the order of excellence
are: fresh, ripe fruits, cooked fresh fruits,
cooked dried fruits, nuts, water bread, rice,
zwieback, toasted corn flakes, potato, cauli-
flower and other fresh vegetables (if fiber is
rejected), honey, buttermilk, sterilized milk

H

THE SIMPLE LIFE IN A NUTSHELL 77

and cream, peas, beans, lentils, raised bread,
sterilized butter.

Eat, drink, sleep, exercise, — do all for
efficiency. Said Paul, "Whether ye eat or
drink, whatsoever ye do, do all for the glory
of God." A man can do credit to his Creator
only in following the natural order of life in-
tended for him.

Tobacco— Arch Enemy of
Efficiency

Tobacco— Arch Enemy of
Efficiency

It is one of the enigmas of modern life that
the average business man, the man who de-
mands the highest degree of efficiency in every
department of his business, be it factory or
store or office, should continue to use tobacco,
knowing that it is one of the deadliest of
poisons and one of the worst of all enemies
of mental power. It is astonishing that his
business sense, his genius for economy, should
permit him to consume so much of his energy
in a perfectly useless and harmful way. Do
you know, the man who smokes consumes lar
more energy in pufifing away at his cigars
than he devotes to his business ; it takes more
energy to run a cigar than to manage the big-
gest business in the country.

Lincoln's Opinion of Tobacco

Observe, I do not say it requires more
brains— quite the contrary. Abraham Lin-
coln, you may remember, said one time that

81

82 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

if he had a son who smoked cigarettes and
parted his hair in the middle he would
maul him to death with a squash. Lincoln
in this as well as in other respects set
a fine example for his country. He neither
drank nor smoked — and I hope we shall have
other presidents who will not smoke.

And this matter of example, let me say, is
a vitally important one. When I was study-
ing in New York City forty years ago I heard
one day a splendid anti-tobacco lecture
delivered by a member of the faculty.
After the lecture I notice that the professor
as he stepped out the rear door lit a cigar.
The act did not influence myself, for even
then I was opposed to the use of the weed,
but the effect upon the other students was to
nullify everything he had said in his lecture
against the horrible consequences of using
tobacco.

Easing the Load of the Liver

Any man, indeed, who stops to study him-
self, who inquires into the means by which
he can conserve his vital energy and increase
his efficiency, discovers that the first thing to

TOBACCO— ENEMY OF EFFICIENCY 83

do is to raise the load oif his liver, kidneys,
and other organs ; he discovers, for instance,
that the work his lungs and kidneys are re-
quired to do in eliminating nicotine is far
more than all the work involved in digesting
food and performing intellectual labor,
and if he is a wise man he will drop imme-
diately the use of tobacco. He discovers, too,
that meat and alcohol and tea and coifee con-
tain and give rise to poisons that cripple the
organs of elimination, and he discards them
along with the tobacco. And presently he
will find himself in possession of energy that
he never dreamed himself capable of. His
experience will be similar to that of a lady
who was troubled with chronic headaches
and who had a desire to have her eyes
treated and fitted with spectacles. We found
on examination that she could not see things
straight; every object on which she gazed
appeared to her crooked, like a rail fence ; a
picture frame looked, the edge of it, like a
fine, wavy line. We fitted her with proper
glasses, and on looking at her husband she
exclaimed, "Why doctor, I did not know my
husband was so handsome a man." So with

64 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

the tobacco user — convince him that he is be-
ing injured and handicapped by nicotine ; get
him to give up smoking and chewing until his
blood is thoroughly cleansed and his tissues
purified and his natural strength brought
back, and he will not know himself; he will
be surprised at the strength which lies latent
in him. And if he is a man of character he
will never return to the weed again.

Tobacco an Age Producer

I remember some twenty-five years ago a
man whom I lectured on every possible
occasion. One day he came into my office,
putting out a cigar as he entered the door.
As he sat down I said, "Come, my friend,
you are seventy years old and very thin."
"Yes," he replied, slowly, "I am very thin.
I wish I could put on a little more flesh."
"You walk rather feebly, too," I observed,
"and I suppose you do not feel too strong."
"No," he said, "I am nearly seventy now, and
pretty near the end of my rope. I cannot ex-
pect to live long." "Suppose," I replied,
"suppose you celebrate your seventieth birth-
day by throwing away your cigars ; by giving

TOBACCO-ENEMY OF EFFICIENCY 85

up tobacco and observing results." "Oh,"
he said, 'it is too late ; I am too old." He
went away and I did not see him for six
months or more. One day he came into my
office, stepping spryly and with a distinct ad-
dition of weight. "Doctor," he said, as he
shook my hand, "I took your advice and
threw my tobacco away on my seventieth
birthday, and I have gained fifteen pounds
and feel — ^why, I feel twenty years younger."
And he lived and enjoyed the best of health
for another ten years.

Paraljmng the Mental Processes

Some years ago I met the chief justice of
one of our northern States — z delightful
gentleman, with a charming personality. He
smoked very heavily — ^twenty strong cigars
a day, in fact. I said to him one day, "Judge
why do you smoke? Can you make a better
argument when you smoke, or give a clearer
opinion? Does tobacco stimulate the brain
and render your mind more active?" "Why
no," he replied; "I found out years ago that
if I wanted to make a good strong argument
before a jury I must not smoke. I found

86 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

out that when I had smoked I felt while de-
livering the argument that it was wonderful,
a masterpiece in every way; but afterwards
I found that in reality it was extremely weak.
So I long ago learned that I must not smoke
before making a plea before a jury." Later
on he gave up the habit.

A runner who sets out to win a foot race
never thinks of preparing for the contest by
smoking; he knows that he might as well
concede defeat before he starts; the efifort
to run would be wholly useless. Boxers
have learned the same lesson — you could not
induce a man in training for a puglistic event
to smoke a cigar. And yet business men,
lawyers, professors — ^most men who set out
in the race of life, determined to achieve
success in their particular field of endeavor,
hang onto their cigar as though it were an aid
to achievement, instead of being the terrible
handicap that it is.

The Case of Ex-Senator Depew

As an example of what I have been saying
I might cite the case of Ex-senator Chauncey
Depew, the erstwhile gourmet and bon vi-

TOBACCO— ENEMY OF EFFICIENCY 87

vant. For many years a member of the Mon-
tauk Club of Brooklyn, and always present
at Club banquets, he had not been present at
the Club for a long time, not even on the
occasion of the annual birthday dinner that
is given in his honor. One of these latter,
the first after long years, he attended not long
since, and in explaining his seeming remiss-
ness he said, ''I had rheumatism so badly I
could not be about without difficulty. One
day," he went on to remark, "I was at a din-
ner in honor of the one hundredth anniver-
sary of the birth of Professor Cheuvril, the
great French chemist. I said to Professor
Cheuvril during the course of the dinner,
'Professor, how have you managed to pre-
serve your life and vigor to such an advanced
age?' *By temperance,' replied the Pro-
fessor; 'I drink no alcohol. I eat no meat,
and do" not use tobacco.' " This set Senator
Depew to thinking, with the result that he
gave up tobacco and beefsteaks.

Twenty Cigars a Day

"I used to smoke twenty cigars a day,"
said the Senator, ''and continued to smoke

86 DR. KELLOGGS LECTURES

them until I became worn out." What was
it that wore him out ? He confessed it was not
running the New York Central Railway, of
which he was president. Nor was it attend-
ing to his duties as United States Senator
at Washington. It was nothing more nor
less than the habit of smoking. "One day,"
he said, as he told the story, "I said to my
cigar. The time has come for us to part.
I gazed sadly and longingly at it, then
threw it into the street." One day, later
on, he bought a cigar, smoked it a few min-
utes, then looked at it and said, ''You are the
cause of all my ills," and he threw it away
again, and since then he has not smoked —
and he renewed his youth and activity. Think
of the years of life and the vital energy
thrown away in foolish indulgence.

Obtervatioiit of a Physician

We might go on naming men of eminence
in public life who have discovered the
ill effects of using tobacco, and who have
discarded it because of the tremendous handi-
cap which it imposes in the race for success,
but in order to show you just how dangerous

TOBACCO^ENEMY OF EFFICIENCY 89

tobacco realy can be I wish to give you a case
or two from a list of twenty-four similar cases
recently cited by an English physician —
cases, many of them, that had come under his
personal observation :

Smoked to Death

''Case I was a man aged 55, an abstainer
from alcohol, and exemplary in all his habits
except — ^he smoked and chewed tobacco ex-
cessively. He called for medical advice
January 27th. He had been at work until
two days before, when he fell ill. At first he
vomited and felt pains in the back. I found
the pulse weak, 128, and he was weak and
shaky and unfit for work. I put him on his
club, and gave him medicine. He came again
on February 3d; heart sounds were feeble,
pharynx injected, urine thick. He promised
to give up smoking. On February 5th, after
walking one mile, the pulse was 112; he com-
plained of weakness in legs, vertigo, palpi-
tation, and nausea. It was evident he was
suffering from mild influenza, plus chronic
tobacco poisoning ; he remained under treat-
ment for three months, abstaining entirely

90 DR. K£LLCX;G*S LECTURES

from tobacco. The heart gradually recov-
ered its tone. On April 29th pulse was 96 ;
he returned to work in May ; in June he was
doing well, with pulse 88, cord-like.

Reoovered When Discarding Tolmcoo

"Case IV was a young man of healthy ap-
pearance, aged 25, a carpenter, who had re-
cently fainted in the early morning, imme-
diately on rising from bed. This happened
twice within a short time. I found no sign
of disease, and on questioning him as to his
habits I found he was a cigarette smoker. I
advised him to break off the habit. Such
cases as this occur to most practitioners, and
they prove that the heart is liable to serious
disturbance, even in strong men. This man
took my advice and has since been in good
health.

"John Cairns was a Shef&eld fitters' la-
borer, who although warned by his doctor
that cigarette smoking was doing him serious
physical harm, was such a slave to the habit
that he only desisted from the excess for a
few days. While he was hurrying to fetch a
doctor to attend his sister he fell dead in the

TOBACCX>— ENEMY OF EFFICIENCY 91

Street. At the inquest the jury's verdict was
based on the medical opinion that death was
inunediately due to violent emotional excite-
ment, aggravated by excessive cigarette
smoking."

Tobacco Banned by Many Men of AttainmenU

The use of tobacco is certainly decreasing
among men of science and culture, who in
general appreciate more than do others the
importance of physical habits in relation to
mental efficiency. Oberlin College sets a
splendid example in excluding tobacco and
tobacco users from its walls. The president
and professors are all non-smokers, and
students are not permitted to smoke.

Prof. E. G. Lancaster, of Olivet College,
daughter of Oberlin, and his colleagues are
non-users of tobacco and oppose its use.
Notwithstanding the fact that their president
smokes, only forty per cent of the students
of Yale are smokers, thangs to the example
and teaching of such men as Prof. Irving
Fisher, head of the department of political
science, who most earnestly opposes the use
of tobacco in any form.

Combating Neurasthenia

Combating Neurasthenia

Neurasthenia is not a disease, but a
complex combination of symptoms, the gen-
eral cause of which is nerve poisoning.

In the first place the body is saturated
with poisons which lessen the natural en-
ergies of the brain, rendering the brain
cells less acute and less capable of mental
effort. These poisons are very frequently
produced by meat eating, though they may
be the result of excessive eating of any sort,
especially in sedentary persons who do not
exercise sufficiently to burn up the food ma-
terial which they take in. For it should be
remembered that a sedentary person, no mat-
ter how hard he works his brain, consumes in
work only three-fifths as much food as does
the man who engages actively in muscular
pursuits. If he eats as much, the two fifths ex-
cess which he takes into his system is rapidly
converted into wastes, cinders, as it were,
which poison and cripple every tissue,
exercising their pernicious influence upon

9B

% DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

the brain and nerves, particularly as shown
in depression of mind, irritability of temper,
confusion of thought, inability to concentrate
the mind, indecision, despondency, and other
characteristics of neurasthenia.

Indigettion and Nenrow Ezhantlioii

Indigestion is another very frequent cause
of nerve exhaustion. Bouchard has show by
incontrovertible evidence that the changes
which often take place in the stomach and in-
testine, when in a state of indigestion result-
ing in fermentation and putrefaction, give
rise to poisonous substances which, when ab-
sorbed into the body, may produce effects en-
tirely similar to those produced by strychnia,
opium, alcohol, and other well-known drugs.
When food is retained in the stomach be-
yond the normal time, either because of its
indigestibility, or too large a quantity, or a
crippled state of the stomach, these changes
are certain to take place. This fact explains
a very large share of the myriad symptoms
which afflict the neurasthenic. The giddiness,
the tingling sensations, the confusion of
thought, and often mental incapacity, which

COMBATING NEURASTHENIA 97

are not infrequently observed for several
hours after meals in chronic dyspeptics, are
due to this cause. Here is the explanation of
the irascibility, the despondency, the pessim-
ism, the indecision, and various other forms of
mental perversity, and even moral de-
pravity, sometimes developed in persons
least expected to exhibit such traits of char-
acter.

Popular Beverages Ruin Nenret

Alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee are also
vicious poisons which exert a paralyzing in-
fluence upon the nerves. Alcohol, for in-
stance, renders a man temporarily insane by
paralyzing certain of the nerve cells, so that
the brain is unable to form correct judgments.
Irregular and unnatural combinations of ideas
are formed, often with the most disastrous re-
sults. A man who naturally is peaceable,
under the influence of liquor becomes violent,
destructive, a veritable beast in ferocity. In
the disease known as delirium tremens* the
nerve contacts become curiously mixed up,
so that the sufferer sees snakes, reptiles, and
all sorts of monsters and strange shapes be-

96 DR. KELLOGG*S LECTURES

fore him. Such a patient once mentioned to
me that he saw a sheep with a huge proboscis
like an elephant, and chickens with enormous
heads and jaws like crocodiles, with their
mouths wide open and rushing at him. These
facts forcibly impress upon one the evil
effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other poisons
which paralyze the nerve cells, destroying
those cell groupings which are necessary for
the maintenance of health of mind and body.

The Body Like a Furnace

Again, the body is like a furnace. The
food that we eat is taken into the body and
burned, or oxidized, just as coal is burned in
a stove. In the case of the furnace certain
gases, the products of combustion, are
formed which escape through the chimney.
In the same way the products of vital com-
bustion or oxidation escape from the body
through the lungs, skin, and other excretory
organs. When too large an amount of food
is taken, the situation of the body is the same
as that of a stove or furnace that is over-
crowded with fuel; the combustion being
incomplete, volumes of smoke are produced

COMBATING NEURASTHENIA 99

which choke the fire, and may extinguish it.
An excess of food fills the body with or-
ganic smoke or imperfectly oxidized waste
substances, of which uric acid is the best
known representative, and of which rheu-
matism, neurasthenia, or nervous prostration,
neuralgia, nervous headache, bilious attacks,
apoplexy, paralysis, and various other dis-
orders, are the natural results.

A Factory of Poisons

The body is a factory of poisons and if
these poisons, which are constantly being pro-
duced in large quantities, are imperfectly
removed, or are produced in too great quan-
tity, as the result of over-feeding, the fluids
which surround the brain cells and all the
living tissues are contaminated with poison-
ous substances, which asphyxiate and para-
lyze the cells, and thus interfere with their
activity. This fact explains, in part at least,
the stupidity which is a common after-dinner
experience with many persons, and which,
with some people who are habitually gross
eaters, is a confirmed, ever-present state.

A brain which receives impoverished blood

100 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

18 hampered in its activities. A brain sur-
charged with blood is, on the other hand
overexcited. The result is likely to be sleep-
lessness and irritability, and other symptoms
of neurasthenia. If the blood is charged
with irritating substances, the organs through
which it circulates will be naturally ex-
posed to abnormal irritation, excitation,
and disturbance of function. A brain which
receives too large a supply of blood must
suffer first and most in this regard. What-
ever is taken into the stomach and absorbed
enters the blood and circulates through the
body. The odor of nicotine which hangs
upon the breath of the smoker and the al-
coholic odors which emanate from the body
of the inebriate for many hours after he has
ceased drinking, are evidences of this.

Relieving the Nerves

Now as to means of relieving this condi-
tion. First, the neurasthenic must eat care-
fully and take no stimulants of any kind. And
— a matter of very grave importance in this
connection — he must so regulate the bowel
movements as to take care of the waste ma-

COMBATING NEURASTHENIA 101

terials which have accumulated. This does
not mean once a day, but three times a day.
When food is introduced into the stomach a
peristaltic wave is set up which travels the
entire length of the alimentary canal, and
which, when not thwarted, unloads the waste
materials from the body.

In making observations of these move-
ments Doctor Cannon, of Harvard Univer-
sity, studied the action of the alimentary canal
in a cat by means of the X-ray. He watched
the food pass from the stomach into the
alimentary* canal, and from the alimentary
canal into the colon. Here he found two
movements. One was a constant movement
from the middle of the colon upward, the
purpose of which is to retain the fluid por-
tions of the food in the cecum until absorp-
tion has taken place. The second movement
came at regular intervals and was a down-
ward movement, larger and stronger than
the other.

Colonic Cleanliness

When the unusable residues finally reach
the lower part of the colon, they should be

102 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

prompdy expelled ; if this is not done, the re-
sult is constipation, the worst evil that affiicts
humanity, the most dangerous of all forms of
intoxication the body knows. We might, in-
deed, call constipation a veritable Pandora's
box of mischiefs, for malignant germs, scores
of varieties of them, thrive there, each kind
producing its particular poison, and making
possible a great variety of symptoms of
chronic intestinal activity. Professor Bouch-
ard has shown that often the contents of the
intestines consist of one-half bacteria, and
these poisons, which are retained in the body,
affect not only the skin, which becomes tainted
and discolored, but also the nerves and the
brain, the very seat of neurasthenia.

Dermic Cleanliness

Neglect to bathe the skin, allowing it to
become foul, is considered a hideous and un-
healthful thing — an unclean covering skin is
far less objectionable than a foul inside skin.
'I he body, remember, is merely a double tube
with a covering skin and an inside skin — the
lining of the alimentary canal. Now, if the
covering skin becomes foul, much of the im-

COMBATING NEURASTHENIA 103

purity is cast off — ^by perspiration and in
various other ways ; but if, on the other hand,
the lining skin is allowed to become foul, the
impurities are absorbed into the blood and
the body is poisoned.

In order to remove neurasthenia, you must
clean up the body and keep it clean. A man
once came to me and said, '^Doctor, tell me
just what to eat. I want to be cured, and
if you tell me to eat sawdust, why, I'll eat
sawdust. I will do just what you say for
three weeks; but at the end of that time I
want to get back to my regular life."
There is no hope for that sort of a
neurasthenic. He has not yet reached the
point where he is willing to be cured and stay
cured. The most important thing for the
neurasthenic is to be delivered from bad
habits — from cigars, from tea and coffee,
from beefsteaks — and to train the body into
a condition in which it will throw off the
wastes that are constantly accumulating.

The Body Filters

In this connection let me caution you to re-
member that when the bowels are not active

104 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

the kidneys have to carry off a great many
of the poisons which accumulate in the colon,
with the result that these delicate filters are
ruined. How long, think you, would a Pas-
teur filter remain intact if every day a quan-
tity of filth were poured into it?

The kidneys are delicate filters, and in load-
ing them down with poisons that come from
putrefaction we ruin them. A man in perfect
health, with sound kidneys and a sound liver,
may be able to tolerate these poisons for a
long time, but he is constantly undermining
his health, and will reach the time when his
body will not stand the damage any longer.
Like a battleship on fire — ^the fire burns and
continues to burn, but after a while it gets to
the magazine and the ship blows up. So it is
with the man who goes on with his bad
habits — eventually the disease processes
reach the vital point and he collapses.

ife and the Liver

Life and the Liver

More people complain about their livers
than about any other organ of the body,
when, as a matter of fact, of all the organs
of the body the liver is almost the least
worthy of blame. It is the most untiring in
its eflforts to preserve our lives ; it is the most
industrious; and, aside from the brain, it is
the most wonderful and the most mysterious
organ of the body. It carries on a large
number of activities. It secretes, it excretes,
it creates, it destroys, it tears down and builds
up. It seems to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades
in the body, and an expert in every one of
them, and yet the most powerful microscope
reveals in its simple structure no hint of this
marvelous diversity of function.

Bfle-Makmg Functions of the Liver

One of these many functions that the liver
performs is the making of bile, of which it
produces from sixteen to twenty-four ounces
every twenty-four hours. Bile is one of the

107

108 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

most poisonous of body wastes and needs to
be eliminated from the system as speedily as
possible. It is composed not only of alkaline
wastes, but also of bacteria which have been
removed from the blood, and of various
poisonous substances which may have been
taken into the stomach with food or drink.
It serves a number of useful purposes, being
an antiseptic, a laxative, an aid to absorption,
and prevents the acid gastric juice from di-
gesting the small intestine by neutralizing its
acrid acid.

The Manufacture of Glycogen

Glycogen, one of the essentials of life, a
substance needed by every living cell, is an-
other product of the liver. Glycogen is a
product of sugar brought to the liver from
the intestine by the portal vein. This sugar,
however, is not the ordinary cane sugar with
which we are familiar, but a fruit sugar
formed by the digestion of starch. In dia-
betes this function is disturbed; the body
gradually loses its power to store glycogen,
and death occurs.

Waste substances produced by the work

UFE AND THE LIVER 109

of the body or by putrefaction in the intes-
tines, or that have been taken into the body
with food such as uric acid, are in part con-
verted into urea by means of special ferments
which are formed by the cells of the liver.
The discovery of this important function of
the liver explains the zoological fact that car-
nivorous animals, and especially scavenger
animals, have extraordinarily large livers.
A dog has a liver four times as large
as that of a man in proportion to its size,
because it has so many of these poisons to
take care of. If man had a liver as large
in proportion as that of a turkey buz-
zard, there would be no room left for
the other organs of the abdominal re-
gion. Large meat eaters compel their livers
to do three or four times as much work as is
required with a low-protein or non-flesh diet-
ary. It was on this ground that the late
Professor Dujardin-Beaumetz, of Paris, for-
bade (he use of flesh foods of all sorts in all
cases of disease of the liver and kidneys.

In recent times it has been demonstrated
that the vital processes of the body have two
quite independent sources of regulation — ^the

1 10 DR. KELLCXIG'S LECTURES

nerve centers, on the one hand, which send
out exciting and controlling nerves, and, on
the other hand, internal secretions which act
in relation to such great functions as muscular
activity. The action of every muscle, of every
gland, probably of every cell, is controlled by
these remarkable and subtle substances, of
which many eminent physiologists believe the
liver is the chief source. It is readily ap-
parent, then, how great must be the disturb-
ance of the vital machinery when through any
cause the functions of the liver become de-
ranged, as in the condition commonly known
as "biliousness." This term, while not
scientific, is nevertheless significant in that it
suggests a disturbance of the bile-making
organ, which is in a condition of enormous
overwork and inability to meet the extraordi-
nary and unnatural demands made upon it.

The Liver a Life Preserver

Every person is indebted to his liver for
rescue from speedy death. This marvelously
versatile organ has power to destroy poisons.
If a person drinks water containing lead, or
eats peas or pickles colored green with cop-

UFE AND THE LIVER 1 1 1

per, the liver seizes upon the poisonous
metal, and after discharging as much of it
as possible through the bile, gathers the re-
mainder up in its cells, thus preventing the
circulation of the poison to the rest of the
body. When a person is found suffering from
metal poisoning, the fact is evident that the
liver has been seriously damaged; otherwise
other organs would not have suffered. The
smoker, the user of alcohol, and the opium
slave would have suffered death from the
first indulgence in the poison were it not for
this marvelous function of the liver. Tea and
coffee, too, are active agents in causing pre-
mature breakdown of this important vital
machine ; and the same must be said of con-
diments, mustard, pepper, capsicum, spices,
vinegar, hot sauces, and the use of chemical
substances in bread making. All of these sub-
stances should be carefully avoided, unless
one wishes to die prematurely.

A brief study of the physiology of the liver
and its relation to the circulation of the blood
will explain the manner in which this protec-
tive function of the liver is performed, and
emphasize the importance of not overtaxing

112 DR. KELLOGG'S LECTURES

It by the use of poison-producing foods and
beverages, and irritating spices and condi-
ments. First let us examine the heart.

The Syitemic Circulatimi

Now the human heart is really not a single
organ, but a double heart — a left and right
heart, as will be seen from the illustration.
Some animals have three or four hearts lo-
cated in different places, but the human
system has but one, divided into two
sections — as we have said, the right and
left heart. The left auricle and left
ventricle pump the pure blood through the
aorta into the arteries and capillaries in
all parts of the body, where it is gathered
up by the veins and carried into the vena
cava, the large central vein that carries
the impure blood back to the right heart.
This is known as the "systemic circulation."

The Puknonary Circulation

By the right heart the blood is pumped into
the pulmonary artery, whence it is carried to
the lungs. The blood now circulates through
all parts of the lungs, becoming oxygenized

UFE AND THE LIVER 1 13

and freed from the Impurities which it has
picked up in its journey from the left heart.
From the lungs the blood travels by way of
the pulmonary veins back to the left heart,
whence it is ready to set out again on the
journey of the systemic circulation. This
circuit, from the right back to the left heart,
is called the "pulmonary circulation."

Portal Circalatioii

The most interesting part of the story has
yet to be told, however. Part of the blood,
after it leaves the left ventricle, leaves the
systemic circulation and is distributed to the
stomach, intestines, pancreas, spleen and
other organs. From these various organs
the blood is conveyed by a large vessel,
known as the "portal vein," to the liver,
where it is filtered, as it were, and the grossest
of the poisons from the organs just named
are removed. In this way all the materials
absorbed by the veins of the stomach during
digestion are submitted to inspection before
being allowed to enter the general circulation.

From the liver the blood is carried to the
"ascending vena cava" by means of the he-

UFE AND THE LIVER 115

patic vein, and is then carried to the right
heart. This circulation of the blood through
the stomach, intestines, pancreas and spleen
is known as the "portal circulation."

Great Importance of the PcHTtal Cirodatimi

Now the integrity of the portal circulation
is of the utmost importance. All the poisons
which the blood carries from the stomach,
the spleen, the pancreas, and the intestines
are carried by the portal vein into the liver —
poisons, that is to say, which have been ab-
sorbed from the stomach and other organs,
and poisons that have been ingested with the
food and drink. The most vicious of these
poisons the liver destroys ; the others are car-
ried on by the blood into the hepatic vein,
which returns it to the systemic circulation.

The Liver an hidispensaUe Organ

This destruction of poisons by the liver is
one of the most important processes in the
entire body. People have been known to live
without a stomach, and still others with but
one kidney, while portions of the intestinal
canal have been removed without any ap-

116 DR. KELLOGCS LECTURES

preciable effect on the patient; but remove
any portion of the liver from an individual
and he will be fatally poisoned by the toxins
which enter the general circulation without
being filtered out.

Bflioufliesi Means Antointoricatkm

Now there are many people who suffer
from bilious attacks. Their livers have been
crippled to such a degree that it is almost as
much disabled as if the operation had been
performed. The bilious attack means simply
poisoned blood — ^in other words, autointoxi-
cation. The poisons of autointoxication are
the most deadly that are introduced into the
body.

Now if a butcher cuts his finger with a
knife with which he has been cutting meat,
he may die of blood-poisoning, but he can
take an equal amount of the same poison into
his stomach and it will not kill him, because
the liver takes care of these poisons.

Hie Meainre ol the Heart's Work

Now, in order to be effective in its work of
removing impurities from the body, the blood

UFE AND THE UVER 117

must have an uninterrupted flow through all
the blood-vessels. The blood after leaving
the left ventricle, passing from the aorta,
enters a vast network of fine capillaries be-
fore it empties again into the vena cava.
Again, the blood must traverse a vast capil-
lary system before the blood passes through
the pulmonary circulation back to the left
heart. To propel the blood through the
blood-vessels of the body, the heart pumps
night and day without any rest, except what
it gains between beats. Thus, the total
amount of work done by the heart in twenty-
four hours in its contractions, in an average
man, is about one hundred and twenty-four
foot-tons; that is, it is equivalent to lifting
one hundred and twenty-four tons one foot
high, or lifting a one-hundred pound weight
one foot high 2,480 times, or at the rate of
about four times a minute for a period of
ten hours.

A Force Pomp

The heart, indeed, is in effect a force-
pump, as will be recognized by the second of
the two pictures. The "arterial system" is

1 18 DR. KELLCXiG'S LECTURES

a great reservoir into which the heart is con-
stantly pumping blood with a force that
is constantly maintained. From the arterial
system the blood passes through the capil-
laries (indicated in the illustration by fine
horizontal lines) into the venous system
(represented in the illustration at the left by
the sections labeled '^skin and muscles") and
into the portal system. The venous blood of
the skin and muscles is carried directly to tne
right heart, while that of the i>ortal system,
or ^'splanchnic area," has to pass through the
liver for the removal of its poisons.

Elastic Arteries

In view of the constant pressure of the
blood exerted by the action of the heart, the
importance of keeping the blood-vessels elas-
tic and healthy is very apparent. With each
beat of the heart the vessels are distended by
the flow of blood. If, however, they become
hardened so that they do not give, the blood
does not readily press its way through, which,
especially in the case of the arterial system,
creates an abnormal pressure that results in
increasing degeneration of the vessels, with

UFE AND THE UVER 119

ultimate rupture of the vessels or heart
failure.

Causes of Arterial Hardening

There are various causes of degeneration
of the arteries, or arteriosclerosis, the most
common, perhaps, being wrong habits of
eating — ^the use of tobacco, alcohol, tea and
coffee, and meat and other foods rich in pro-
tein, charging the blood with poisons which
irritate the walls of the arteries and veins and
encourage a condition which leads to arterio-
sclerosis. Other poisons and irritants which
should be omitted from the dietary are spices
and condiments of every kind. It has been
said, indeed, that arteriosclerosis commences
by poisoning, continues by poisoning, and
ends by poisoning. This poisoning, accord-
ing to Huchard, is generally due to errors in
diet. This is well shown by the fact that the
toxic dyspnea — a form of asthma which ac-
companies intestinal autointoxication— disap-
pears very quickly on the adoption of a non-
flesh dietary. An interesting observation of
Huchard's is the fact that in many cases of
intestinal autointoxication there is an increase

120 DR. KELLOGGS LECTURES

of blood-pressure. These cases were re-
ferred to by old medical authors as pas-
sive hyperemia of the liver, or abdominal
plethora. In these cases there are found
enlargement of the liver, bronchitis, and fre-
quently pulmonary congestion and cardiac
feebleness. The congested liver is unable to
perform its poison-destroying functions. As
a result, various toxic substances absorbed
from the intestines are distributed by the
blood throughout the body, and, coming in
contact with the tissues, irritate the walls of
the blood-vessels and cause these tissues to
thicken and degenerate.

We have pointed out, then, that under the
conditions of our modern civilized life, the
ordinary mixed diet introduces into the sys-
tem an enormous number of germs. The
poisons produced by some of these germs are
identical with those produced by the putrefac-
tion of a dead animal or a decayed egg. In
moderate quantities the liver is able to deal
with these poisonous products, but its ca-
pacity is limited; hence the ' 'biliousness''
which results from constipation, over-eating,
and the free use of meats. These bacteria

UFE AND THE LIVER 121

are constantly passing through the intestinal
wall into the veins and thus find their way to
the liver. The liver cells destroy many of
these, but great numbers often find their way
into the gall bladder, causing inflammation
of the gall bladder and gall stones.

Constant Care of the Liver Essential

An organ possessed of so many, such de-
licate, and such wonderful functions, and
whose activities are so essential to life and
well-being, certainly needs the best of care,
even though such care require some restric-
tion of appetite, for foods which, while af-
fording a momentary tickle of the palate or
a certain measure of ^'unearned felicity," may
be at the same time making huge breaches in
the walls of defense which protects the citadel
of human life.

Role of Constipation

Finally, it should be made known that one
of the most active, perhaps the most common
and most potent of all causes of arterio-
sclerosis as well as of diseases of the heart and
kidneys, is constipation. By the retention of